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A man tried to rob an Uptown bank Saturday afternoon but didn’t make off with any cash, according to authorities.

Katherine Chaumont, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Dallas division, said the man walked into the Wells Fargo bank branch at 2611 Cedar Springs in Dallas about 1 p.m. He showed a handgun and demanded cash, but he fled the scene.

Authorities did not have a photo of the suspect for media release at time of publication, Chaumont said.

Update at 4:45 p.m.: According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Jones was actually on parole in Midland (and not in prison) at the time he was sent to the Dallas Transitional Center in February.

Dallas police officers arrested Rodney Jones in Uptown just before 8 p.m. on February 9 as he attacked a woman who had just exited the Cityplace DART station. Police also suspected him in an earlier Uptown robbery at knifepoint, according to police.

But it seems Jones, who was released from a Midland prison just one day prior, began his crime spree earlier that night when he “became belligerent,” fled the Dallas Transitional Center and removed an electronic monitoring device from his ankle, the documents said.

About 6:30 p.m., a 43-year-old man was confronted from behind on the south side of the courthouse. The attacker, believed to be Jones, told him to, “Take me to your car or I’m going to kill you,” he told police.

Jones held an object to the man that the victim thought was a handgun.

Police said Jones robbed the man of $23 and forced him to lead him to his car in the ACE parking garage across North Riverfront Boulevard, police said. He made the victim sit in the passenger seat and as he started the car, Jones told the man, “that he would have to kill him and 900 people,” the documents said.

The man noticed Jones had a stick with a jagged end in his lap. It appears that is what the victim earlier thought was a gun.

As Jones pulled up to the exit gate, the victim tried to escape and a struggle ensued, the documents said. The victim was able to break free and ran to the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, where he alerted a Dallas County sheriff’s deputy and the investigation began.

Three days later, on February 12, the sheriff’s department learned that the stolen vehicle had been recovered in Dallas. Three days after that the sheriff’s department, “retrieved information via the Dallas Morning News, that Dallas Police Department had arrested a person for Aggravated Robbery in the area of the City Place DART Station on February 10,” the documents said.

The arrested man in the News report matched the description of the carjacking suspect. The robberies also occurred not far from where the stolen car was recovered, the documents said.

Later in February, the carjacking victim identified Jones as his attacker from a photograph lineup. Jones remains in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, where his bail is set at $300,000 and he is also being held on a parole violation.

Another officer arrived on scene and sprayed Boothe with pepper spray to help his fellow officer out. As is often the case, that apparently worked and Boothe was taken into custody without further incident, police said.

Zaudke was treated at the scene for minor injuries. Boothe was also treated for the spray.

The Dallas man “continued to be resistant and combative during transport and in booking process,” the documents said.

Boothe faces a felony charge of assault of a public servant. He remains in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, where his bail is set at $10,000.

Dallas police have increased patrols on and around the Katy Trail in Uptown after a recent string of armed robberies in the area. (Kye R. Lee / Staff Photographer)

Dallas police officials have scrambled in recent days to explain and re-explain their handling of the Uptown and Katy Trail area robberies spree. That’s included assurances that they’re following leads and that they made the right call in waiting weeks to alert the public about the crimes.

Retired Dallas Police Officer Scotty Holt (below right) can provide such context. He spent a good chunk of his long career protecting folks in and around what is now known as Uptown. He was there before the Katy Trail was, well, the Katy Trail.

Here’s some interesting thoughts form Officer Scotty Holt, in his own words:

I transferred to Central Patrol in 1977, working several beats in and around Uptown and the [Central Business District]. From 1995 til 2007, when I retired, Uptown was my beat on day shift.

The Katy Railroad Tracks had always been used by burglars and robbery suspects. They could freely move across the entire 120′s sector undetected, drop down into the rear of an apartment complex to break into cars or a business, then escape back to the tracks, again undetected. We had several occasions when robbery suspects used the tracks to sneak into Reverchon Park to rob and even murder gay men.

When restaurants became popular in the Mckinney Avenue area, many of the Hispanic workers lived in the apartments north of Oak Lawn and Maple. Robbers would wait on the tracks at the Fairmount and Maple bridges, especially on pay day, then drop down and rob them. They again would disappear back to the tracks and could literally be miles away when we responded. Even if Air 1 [the police helicopter] was close, as soon as they got near the suspects, they could easily disappear into the wooded area where they could not be seen from above.

Many of these attacks were connected to gangs living in the Little Mexico area. When work began on the Katy Trail, the offenses still occurred, but we were now able to drive on the gravel track, then on the paved trail once it was finished. We were able to catch some suspects, were now able to find some of their hiding/stash spots, and kept a presence that deterred some of them.

High rises wiped out the homes in Little Mexico, displacing all the gangs to other parts of town and offenses dropped. Park curfews kept victims out of the parks late at night. Once the Katy Trail became popular, we were very lucky for years that it was isolated and off the radar of the criminal element. But most Officers realized it was only a matter of time that the bad guys would figure it out.

When I was working, I tried to drive the length of the trail at least once in the morning and again in the afternoon. But this was subject to call load, so there were days I never made it there. I enjoyed checking the trail. It gave me a quiet reprieve from the calls in a beautiful setting, a few minutes to catch my breath. I enjoyed being able to talk with all the folks along the Trail, the majority of which were very happy to see me.

The few times we had a problem, mostly with flashers, I was able to warn them. There were a handfull of folks who complained about me driving a car down the trail, but I bet even they would praise it now.

People need to understand that crime many times come in cycles. This particular cycle appears to be committed by the same two suspects. When they began, it obviously took a while to figure out there was a pattern emerging. Once manpower is applied to the problem area, the suspects will eventually be caught.

Then the huge crime upswing will disappear and the trail will once again return to normal. That could last a month, a year or longer, until the next cycle of bad guys figures it out. Then we’ll go through this again. That’s just the nature of the beast.

No matter which cycle we’re in, we should always be cautious, use our common sense, stay aware of our surroundings and have a plan if the worst happens.